Comer vows to investigate Biden document handling ‘with or without’ special counsel
Sarah Westwood
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House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said Thursday that his panel would investigate President Joe Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified material regardless of a new special counsel being appointed.
“With or without a special counsel, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee will investigate President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents and the Swamp’s efforts to hide this information from the American people,” Comer said in a statement.
“The National Archives and Records Administration, the White House, and the Department of Justice were aware of the classified documents stashed in a closet at the Penn Biden Center before the election, and now we’ve learned classified documents kept in President Biden’s garage were found in December,” Comer added.
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His comments came shortly after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of a special counsel to investigate how Biden stored classified documents he took after leaving the vice presidency.
The special counsel, Robert Hur, served as a U.S. attorney during the Trump administration and has previously prosecuted cases involving the mishandling of classified records.
Garland’s announcement followed two days of news stories about classified papers first discovered in November at Biden’s private office in Washington, D.C. Fresh headlines on Wednesday about the discovery of more classified documents inside Biden’s Delaware home led to calls from Republicans for a special counsel investigation.
Biden defended his treatment of the records this week, claiming the papers found in his home were secure in his garage.
“My Corvette is in a locked garage, OK? So, it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,” he said on Thursday.
The president blasted his predecessor, Donald Trump, for keeping a larger number of classified documents after leaving the White House.
Biden said in an interview last year that his first thought upon learning of Trump’s classified document trove was “how that could possibly happen, how anyone could be that irresponsible.”
“And I thought, ‘What data is in there that could compromise sources and methods?’” Biden said at the time.
His own treatment of documents reportedly related to Iran, Ukraine, and other sensitive matters has ignited charges of hypocrisy from Republicans.
Comer questioned why the discovery of the first batch of classified records in Biden’s office remained hidden from the public for months. Biden’s team reached out to the National Archives days before the midterm election in November, but neither the agency nor the White House said anything about the matter until the media reported it.
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By contrast, FBI agents raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida after the Biden administration issued a subpoena for the documents, thus bringing that records dispute to the public’s attention before the midterm election.
“There are many questions about why the Biden Administration kept this matter a secret from the public, who had access to the office and the residence, and what information is contained in these classified documents,” Comer said Thursday. “Republicans will push for transparency, accountability, and answers for the American people.”
Biden’s lawyer has pledged to cooperate with the special counsel investigation.